Airtel Completes Separation Telecom And Money Business

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on Tuesday announced the successful separation of the mobile money business from the telecommunications business under Airtel Networks Kenya Limited.

In a statement, the CBK said separation began in 2019 and Airtel money will now operate under Airtel Money Kenya Limited (AMKL).

“The completion of this restructuring enables AMKL to ring-fence its operations and focus exclusively on its mobile money business. Significantly, this sets the foundation for AMKL to enhance governance over its mobile money business, strengthen its operations and offer better services to its customers,” the Central Bank said.

CBK licensed AMKL as a Payment Service Provider (PSP) in line with the National Payment System Act, 2011 on January 21, 2022, and also granted a transition period to complete the transfer. Airtel money was previously operated under Airtel Networks Kenya Limited (ANKL).

The separation now means that AMKL and ANKL will operate as separate subsidiaries of Airtel Africa plc.  Airtel Africa is headquartered in Dubai, the United Arab  Emirates has operations in 14 African countries, and is listed on the London Stock  Exchange.

Telkom Kenya has also hinted at plans to run T-Kash as a separate unit. T-Kash is a mobile payment solution owned by Telkom, taking on Safaricom’s M-Pesa.  Safaricom is also expected to separate from the mobile money service M-Pesa.

Safaricom’s M-Pesa is the biggest mobile money service provider in the country with over 30 million active monthly subscribers. The split story has always been a hot discussion topic among lawmakers and the telco’s management. Lawmakers have been calling for a split arguing that the telco has grown too big and can be better run if its mobile money product M-PESA was spun as a separate entity from the carrier business.

Safaricom team and top leadership have however been opposing the move to split, wanting to continue using data from both companies to increase income. The company’s former CEO the late Bob Collymore once said that the company must never be punished for being successful.

Despite analysts projecting greater revenues for M-Pesa, Safaricom has insisted that it does not see a substantial benefit from devolving M-Pesa from its voice and data business.